Tamerville (canton of Valognes, Manche) Church of Notre-Dame

    The church of Notre-Dame in Tamerville, in the north of Valognes, is a rural sanctuary which is very simple in plan with a short nave of four rib-vaulted bays and a flat east end, but remarkable, above all, for its tower.
The nave has only retained a few Romanesque elements: three walled-up windows, the chancel arch and a number of sculpted capitals, including a deer hunting scene. A doorway opens into the south wall with a characteristic décor of sunken stars and billets. A number of Romanesque corbels remain in the corbel table of the nave and choir.
The tower, built on the south side of the first bay of the choir, has a form which is unique in the Cotentin region, of two stages octagonal in cross-section set on a base with a square ground plan. The base of the tower is pierced by two symmetrical openings on the south side. The second stage is ornamented on all four faces with blind arches. The upper floor has eight window openings. A pointed roof with eight faces sits on a corbel table.
At each stage, the arches have the same long narrow form, with fine small columns with sculpted capitals carrying arches decorated in the geometrical repertory of the 12th century: simple mouldings, zigzag motifs, billets, and fret patterns.
The tower has some traces of reworking suggesting that its base could be dated to an earlier period.

Bibliography

- Musset, Lucien. - Normandie romane, I : la Basse-Normandie, La Pierre-qui-Vire, Zodiaque, 3^e éd., 1987, p. 42
- Since, Marie-Hélène. "Tamerville", Art de Basse-Normandie, n° 68, 1^er trimestre 1976, p. 26-27